Brenda Arteaga Reynoso, Counselor - Counseling Department

Contact Information

Biography

Ever since I was a child, my parents encouraged me to go to college; they themselves had very limited formal education. My mother was raised in Mexico and completed some kindergarten; she immigrated to California when she was 18 years old. My father was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. He was in and out of school because, as a member of a farmworker family, he migrated all over the U.S. to work, and he stopped attending school after the ninth grade. I am the oldest of four children, born in Fremont and raised in Newark. While attending Newark Memorial High School my counselor recruited me into a program called Camino Nuevo, which provided a lot of support and the encouragement to apply to universities I probably would not have applied to otherwise. I graduated from UC Berkeley with honors in 1997 with a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies. I loved the entire college experience; I consider it one of the richest experiences of my life. In my first year of college, I took an Ethnic Studies course. This class changed my life. I learned about the struggles that my community faces, which inspired me to choose Ethnic Studies as my major and pursue a helping career.

I decided to pursue educational counseling to help my community obtain higher education. I hoped that someday I would have the opportunity to be a counselor for a program like Camino Nuevo. I graduated from San Jose State University in 2003 with a Master’s in Educational Counseling, while working at Ohlone College, and then I became a full-time counselor. In 2005 I was thrilled to begin working with students in a way that I had dreamed of for years; I became the Counselor of the Ohlone Puente Project. I loved working closely with the underrepresented students of this program. In 2012, due to various factors, I decided to transition to general counseling.

I live in San Jose, CA with my husband and two young daughters. I enjoy traveling, reading non-fiction, all types of dance, and spending time with my family, and I’m interested in race and gender issues.